Stop the Freedom of Choice Act

To sign a petition to stop the Freedom of Choice Act click here.

"The human embryonic heart begins beating approximately 21 days after conception, or five weeks after the last normal menstrual period (LMP), which is the date normally used to date pregnancy." Wikipedia

"The Bible teaches that the child in the womb is truly a human child, who even has a relationship with the Lord" courtesy of Priests for Life.org

As young as 7 weeks you can see your baby on an ultrasound and you can see the little heart beat. At just 10 weeks your baby has it's major organs and fingernails are beginning to grow.

Don't punish your baby for the mistakes YOU'VE made.

Vintage Inspired Funky Floral Jumper - Size 3

My latest completed project. I figure if it doesn't sell I'll save it for Ada (but if it does, no biggie! I certainly don't need to be storing clothes for three years!)

I made this using a vintage pattern (my mom used to make this dress for me) and a great Robert Kaufman print. To see the 1000Markets listing click here.

Need a great but cheap picture mat?

I have a GREAT tip for anyone who hates to pay for mat boards and they don't know how to cut mats:

I had my daughter's pictures done at a major dept. store and they wanted 30 bucks for a collage picture and another 20 for an ugly frame (on sale!) so I figured I'd just do it myself. When I went to find a collage frame and mat board the over-the-counter frames and mats didn't fit the size of the dept. store pictures (how convenient). But, I found my way around that!

Buy a sheet of art paper and cut out areas for the pictures. It looks just like a mat and it cost a heck of a lot less than a custom mat! $2.49 instead of $22.00! I bought an 11x14 frame from Micheal's for around $9.00 (55% off) so that's a huge savings! (I'd do the math for you but I suck at math :)

And the bonus? There was some left over room on the "mat" for a little scrap booking detail that reads: Ada 6 months (you know, to distinguish these pics from ALL the other pics around the house)



I can not take all the credit for this grand idea, however. The nice employee behind the Micheal's custom framing counter gave me the idea. Naughty her for saving me so much money!

My newest books.....

I was feeling burned out from the internet yesterday so instead I was productive! Imagine that!

I made three books using a different technique than the last book. This technique is much faster and I like the way these turned out. They are awful cute I think.

Each book uses pages from a 2005 Children's Book calendar.

The first book has a wrap around cover and a tab closure on the back. The cover is made from Martha Stewart peach cardstock. There is a picture on the front from the book A Baby Sister for Francis. On the inside I made a "second" cover from the calendar page of A Baby Sister for Francis. The text pages are made from standard copy paper - white and smooth. To see the listing and more pictures click here.





The second book is a simple little folded book with Good Night Moon for the cover. The text pages are made from resume paper so it has a little bit of grit to it. I used blue embroidery thread to sew this one up. Click here to see the listing and more pics.



The third book I did a little differently. I used the calendar page from the book Fireboat - isn't it a pretty cover? The text pages are made with the resume paper and I sewed up the spine with two colors of embroidery thread and then knotted them together to wrap around the book. The ends are secured closed with a vintage orange button. I had leftover paper from the cover and it's so pretty that I couldn't just throw it out so I made a matching matchbook to go with it. Click here to see more pics and the listing.



I had fun making these and I will surely make some more. I still have several pages left from that cute calendar.

Random question of the day

Here's your Random Question of the Day:

Are you ready for Summer or are you still enjoying Winter?

My answer: I'm in between. Today it is freakin' cold BUT it's sunny so I'm happy. If it was raining non stop like it usually does I'd be ready for Summer but it hasn't rained much this winter it seems. I am ready to be able to get out of the house, go for walks and start on my veggie garden, though!

Poor little Spider

It was so cold yesterday morning - my car said 29'! I was leaving to go visit my family and I had the baby in the car all ready to go. I started scraping at the windshield and the frost would not scrape off! So, I had to go back inside to get some water to melt the ice (there is no way I was going to freeze in my car waiting for the heater to melt the windows). On my way back to the front door I noticed this.....



Neato, huh? Poor little spider.

Book Binding

I've been trying out the craft of bookbinding but I got stuck on the sewing part. So my ever patient sister-in-law made this little diagram for me. I thought I'd post it here incase anyone else is having the same brain-fart issues I am. Thanks Theresa!

Ta-Da! It's finally finished!

My latest project, a Craftster.com challenge, is complete (as of Friday). It was pretty time consuming, cutting out all the paper. And it took me, I think, 7 tries to figure out how to sew the binding up (even with the diagram Theresa drew up for me). But, I completed it and I can now say that I am in love with bookbinding.

For my first book binding project I think it turned out not too bad. I had some issues with the glues so I'll have to ask around about that. But all in all not too bad. The best part is that I didn't have to spend a dime to make this. I used found objects from around my house and craft room for the materials.



The front cover of the book was made from old plastic bags that I melted into a sheet (see previous blog posts for pictures of the project in action). The plastic was mounted onto card stock and then I stitched around the edges with a decorative stitch using orange thread.


The inside cover was lined with a map of the United States, which I found in a travel brochure. The inside pages were made from brown paper lunch bags and an old scrapbook I was no longer using (and looking to get rid of). The pages alternate between paper bag and scrapbook page. Each paper bag page has a picture of a random place around the world (found from travel junk mail and magazines). The last paper bag page in each signature is for any other notes about your travels and has a saying cut from old magazines, ie: survival guide, It's a small world, dear diary and Walk On!.



There are 8 pages in each signature, 4 paper bag and 4 scrapbook, with a total of 32 pages.



The back cover is made from dark brown card stock. The book is sewn together using linen thread with the sewing technique Theresa taught me (we can't remember the name of it).

I like the way it turned out, for my first book. I'm already thinking of new books to make! Now if only we could travel so I could use it. I guess it could be my "reminiscing travel" book!

Yet another Valentine

I was working on some mini valentine's for my samples to send to Pets Jubilee and came up with a new form of Valentine. I used one of my favorite Valentine images but created a new format for the card.

I think it's kinda cute!

Valentine Giveaway!

Enter to win a set of my Love Doggy Valentine's!

To be entered please visit any of my shops: 1000markets, Etsy, ArtFire, ShopHandmade or HyenaCart and tell me which site you like best OR comment on any item in my shops. Post your comment(s) here under the Blog Giveaway Post and you're entered! You can post as many times as you'd like but each post must be a new, different and/or unique comment.

Random drawing will be held on Feburary 1st. Winner will be announced on my blog. Winner will be contacted via comment page so be sure your email is easily located from your blog page (or leave your email in the comment section).

Blogging Question

I would like to personalize my blog page. Does anyone know of a good site to get backgrounds for FREE for my blog? Anytime I've searched it's only pulled up Myspace pages and I don't want all that junk on my page.

Thanks!

Random question of the day

This is a political question so if you don't like politics - don't read any further!

The inauguration in coming up so I thought I'd pose this question:

Do you think the new president, Barack Obama, will be able to accomplish all that he's said he will?

What I think: As we are all aware, politicians have A LOT to say about what they will do but then somehow those things never seem to come full circle. Obama seems to have a lot of ideas but I really wonder how much of it can truly be accomplished in four years, let alone one week (ie: all the media hype about all the bills he's going to sign next week).

Featured Artist of the Day

I found a new shop this morning that I think is just too cute so I wanted to share. Her shop is called SecretMe and she is from South Yorkshire, UK.

I came across her shop when she posted this beautiful fabric

so I started looking around in her shop and found this SO cute little book

(which I love) and this little Basset Hound journal is really cute too!

And I came across this hounds tooth wristlet with removable flower broach


SecretMe has great SALE prices right now too so click on the link above and visit her shop (and buy stuff so I don't have to :)

Random question of the day

Here is your question of the day:

What biblical passage inspires you?


I wish I could tell you but I have no idea which passage it is. I saw it in the Christian Bookstore, made note to myself to remember it and poof! it was gone from my brain. Someday I'll find it again. (Apparently it's quite a common passage)

Melting Plastic Bags

I came across a crafting challenge yesterday on Craftster.com. The challenge, here, inspired me with a few ideas, one of which calls for using old plastic bags.

I've heard about melting plastic bags down into a solid sheet that you can use for....whatever...but I'd never tried it before.

So, my sister-in-law, Theresa, came over yesterday and we tried it out. After a couple of misfit sheets we figured out the trick that worked for us: iron setting at 3.5-4, vigorous rubbing of the iron onto the paper and pressing down for added weight. We also found that using the thicker plastic worked better even though other websites say the thinner stuff works better. The thin stuff bubbled and wrinkled a lot on us.

We had some cool bags to work with and some not so cool. Old Navy, Sprint, Gymboree, Catherine's and Disney yielded some neato designs. We also had a lot of Safeway and BiMart bags which weren't very "ooh, la, la" but they did the trick.

Here are some pics of our little adventure.




Some completed versions:



Dad was on baby duty so they came out to watch the show.


There wasn't much of a "show" so after some bundling up Ada became our little helper.


I'll be posting my finished project here on my blog so be sure to check back to see what I came up with!

Good Luck to all who join in the fun, too!

OHS Shelter "Dog" of the Week

Ok, so she's not really a dog but a great pet nonetheless. She's been at OHS since 1/23/2008 - that's almost a year! Doesn't it make your heart cry? Poor little bunny - all alone and feeling unloved. :(



If you are interested in adopting Nutmeg you can find her bio 56760.

Help Nutmeg find a new home!

Random question of the day

What is your new favorite Handmade item or craft?



I just found this one on 1000Markets - gLove Story Dolls from Copocabana. What a fun idea and great for the environment too. You should read the blog post - hilarious!

Random question of the day

Ok, I was laying in bed last night waiting for the baby to wake up (why go to sleep? my brain says) but, of course, now I can't think of my questions. Hmmmmmm.......

What is your favorite Arts and Crafts site? It could be Etsy, ShopHandmade, 1000Markets or an info site like Craftster, CraftJuice, etc.

For shopping I like 1000Markets. Even though it's small it's so clean and fresh. I really need to spend more time digging around on that site.

For info sites I like CraftJuice but haven't been playing around much with info sites. I've been working on FunnyErnie too much.

"New" to me Website

Have you ever heard of CraftJuice? I hadn't until an Etsy friend told me about it. It's kind of fun!

I guess the idea is to vote on your favorite listings. The more votes a listing has the higher up the rank it goes. On the one hand I feel bad for those that don't get votes but on the other how fun it would be if MY product made it to the front page, right?

(I'm one of those people that votes for the loser so they don't feel bad. Hee Hee)

Random question of the day

Here is your Random Question of the Day......

What is your favorite brand of pen? I mean, like a writing pen, or any pen I guess. I have a fetish for school supplies and was thinking about how I wished I had more of my favorite pens around and tha I should treat myself to some new ones.

My favorite brand is by PaperMate. Those really simple blue or black ink 'el cheapo pens. I love those.

Joker Valentine

Here is my latest Valentine. I think he looks like the Joker. Do you love him or hate him?



To purchase him visit my Etsy site here.

Etsy Woes

Etsy is a great site for artisans, however, my Etsy experience has been a bit lack-luster as of late. I've had great sales but sellers and buyers have been a bit withholding in their abilities to effectively and professionaly communicate their thoughts, needs and desires. Even Etsy Admin has been lacking in their ability to effectivly communicate with their patrons.

Is Etsy getting too big for their own shoes? I'm beginning to wonder so.

I am seriously considering leaving the Etsy world for new adventures. There are many a great artisan sites available now - Etsy has some exciting competition. Granted, these sites are still up and coming and do not have the traffic flow that Etsy has, however, this could be a good thing. Etsy has a large traffic flow but with that comes the issues I touched on above (without going into detail).

These issues, I believe, are not just with Etsians but a large problem with the world as a whole. With the advent of the Internet we seem to have lost touch with our personable side. Now that we can express our thoughts without repercussion we go on ahead and say what we please without thought or consideration as to how one may be perceived, how one's words may affect others and how one's emotions play across the lines of the internet.

We are all one in this world, struggling along the same as the next. Regardless of what method of communication you choose to use don't you think you should still treat others as you would wish to be treated? This philosophy seems to have gone out the window (or computer screen in this matter).

Are you feeling the Etsy grudge, too? Check out these alternative Etsy sites and feel the love!

ArtFire
1000Markets
HyenaCart
CafePress

Will You Be My Valentine? Valentine

Here is my latest Valentine listing. I just finished him today. I think he's cute. My hubby think's he looks like the Excorsist. Hey, the dog never said he was perfect - when your drawn by hand your never perfect, right? I still think he's cute even if his head does spin all the way around. What do you think?

I Heart You!

I've gotten a chance to work on some new Holiday items and here are the few I've completed so far.

For this holiday's cards I've chosen to work with fabric. The completed artworks so far use the actual fabric after it's been starched and glued onto the paper. The other method I'm trying out is using BloPens over lace to create an image. I've had these BloPens for years so I am so glad to be able to use them now.

The first one I call "You're in my Heart". I think he's so cute! I've done these as ACEO's so far with a Chocolate Lab and a Yellow Lab. I'll be printing these for traditional Valentine's soon. You can see the listing here for the Red Heart and the Floral Heart.




This one I call "Smooches". I love how in-your-face he is. He was done with starched fabric and acylic paint. He's just an ACEO right now but he will soon be a traditional Valentine as well.